July – Week 2 Summary

16Jul

July 5, 2011

Just in case you aren’t tired of hearing about how our government is completely incapable of taking care of financial issues, the Washington Post has an interesting post that asks the question, “Can the GOP still say ‘yes’?” After numerous concessions and compromises the Republicans still seem to be unhappy with the outcome. They insist that the Dems need to compromise but as soon as they do, the Republicans move the goalposts further down the field.One of the interesting points listed from an author, David Brooks, is that the Republican’s aversion to a deficit compromise suggests that they may no longer be a “normal party.” It goes on to mention that the Republican party, over the past few years, has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative. The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms. The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities. A thousand impartial experts may tell them that a default on the debt would have calamitous effects, far worse than raising tax revenues a bit. But the members of this movement refuse to believe it.

While these problems are centered on Republicans, this financial failure is the fault of our entire government, not of one party or the other, but both. While both sides have made suggestions and compromises, all I hear are the gutting of important social programs (the evil word these days) and the continued financing of wasteful and expensive programs and wars. We can all agree that many of our social programs need an overhaul to reduce the amount of waste and abuse by those that don’t need them, but gutting them isn’t the answer. In the end, regardless of how it ends, we’ll still be left with a wasteful and inefficient government only now it’ll setup to continue punishing those that aren’t rich while allowing the already wealthy to hold onto a few extra bucks. No doubt they’ll use the tired excuse of “trickle-down economics,” only problem is the trickle stopped long ago.

Random Quote

"They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want … Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else... Good honest hard-working people continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you..." - George Carlin

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"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." -J.K. Rowling

Random Quote

"Every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies...A theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D. Eisenhower